The UNITY Launch Vehicle Project is being
developed to service satellite orbital placement and is structured specifically
to deal with the launch requirements of the LEO satellite market.
The launch vehicle family is designated as UNITY. The first vehicle being developed
is the ULV-22.
It follows the traditional proven Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle design with
two main stages, plus a post-boost low thrust stage to enable maximum required performance
and precise injection of the satellites into their required orbits. The ULV-22 is
capable of placing 5 tons of payload into a 200-kilometre orbit.
The launch vehicle is designed by the State Rocket Centre (SRC) formerly known as
Makeev Design Bureau.
UNITY will incorporate three liquid fuelled oxygen and kerosene high thrust RD-120U
engines manufactured by the world leading NPO Energomash for the first stage booster,
and one RD-0136 four-chamber engine manufactured by Chemical Automatics Design Bureau
of Voronezh for the second stage.
The Design Bureau of Transport Machinery, is the leading designer for the Ground
Launch Equipment and Complex. Equipment is being incorporated by SRC from other
eminent aerospace companies who have a proven track record with successful space
programmes.
Hummock Hill Island on the East Coast of Queensland, is 30 km South of the city
of Gladstone and approximately 400 km North of the state capital, Brisbane.

In 1995 the Makeyev center started collaborating
with Australian company United Launch Systems
International (ULSI) on the design of a new
SLV, subsequently named ULV-22 Yedinstvo (Unity),
designed to launch satellites into low and medium orbits, and developing a space
launch facility on Hammock Hill Island of the coast of Australia. The project stalled
due to ULSI's inability to attract investors. In 2001 the Makeyev center announced
that it completed the development of a demonstration example of the Yedinstvo SLV.
The center has also delivered draft plans for the Yedinstvo SLV and similarly named
space launch complex to ULSI. Should funding materialize, Yedinstvo will be built
at the Progress plant in Samara, part of the State Space-Missile Center SKB-Progress,
at a rate of up to 10 SLVs per year. Engines for the first stage were developed
by NPO Energomash in Khimki on the basis of engines used in the second stage of
the Zenit SLV. Other firms involved in the project include NII Khimavtomatiki in
Voronezh (second stage engines), Nizhnaya Salda-based NII Mashinostroyeniya (low-thrust
rocket engines), and KB Transportnogo Mashinostroyeniya. Foreign companies involved
in the project included Boeing and Motorola.

Russian rockets to be launched from Australia
A vital phase in the establishment of a new space launch site for Russian launch
vehicles in Australia ended as the State Missile Centre (SMC) - the Academician
Makeyev Design Bureau of Miass (Chelyabinskaya Oblast, Russia) – successfully delivered
to the representatives of the United Launch Systems International (ULSI) a preliminary
design package for the future Yedinstvo (Unity) launch System project, which includes
construction of a space launch site in Australia to launch the Russian ULV-22 Unity
Launch Vehicle.
The Makeyev Design Bureau has been working closely with the ULSI since 1995. It
took Makeyev a year to develop a preliminary design for the Unity Launch System
under a contract with ULSI. Today, ULSI have obtained all space launch site construction
permits from the Government of Australia and the governments of the concerned
States of the Commonwealth; a relevant decree of the Government of Russia is anticipated
soon.
The ULV-22 launch vehicle is a tandem two-stage rocket with an upper stage. The
propellants are environment-friendly kerosene and liquid oxygen. The upper stage
propellants are ethyl alcohol and oxygen.
LV stages will be manufactured and assembled at the Progress Plant of the TsSKB
Design Bureau in Samara. The 202 t launch mass, two-stage ULV-22 with an upper stage
is designed for indivudial or miltiple injection of commercial spacecraft into variously
inclined low- or medium-altitude Earth orbits. LV can put at least 5.0 t payload
into a low Earth orbit.
The first stage engine developed in Khimki by NPO Energomash is based on the RD-120
engine design used in the second stage of the Zenit launcher. The first stage steering
chambers have been borrowed from the RD-107 engine used in the Soyuz first stage.
Second stage engines indexed RD-0136 are being developed by the Voronezh Chemical
Automatics Design Bureau (KB KhA) on the basis of RD-0124 engine designed for the
third stage of Soyuz launch vehicle. The low-thrust, restartable upper stage engines
are developed by the Engineering Science Research Institute of Nizhnyaya Salda on
the basis of the 17D16 engine originally intended for the Buran space shuttle.Launch SiteThe proposed space launch site is to be located on Hammock Hill Island near
Australia's east coast. The location of the island is very convenient, as there
is only a fifty-meter-wide strait that separates Hammock Hill from the mainland.
The co-ordinates of the proposed launch site are: 24° latitude south, 152° longitude
east.